I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor light-emitting element having a metal/thin organic film/semiconductor junction structure and, more particularly, to such semiconductor light-emitting element having a Langmuir-Blodgett film as the thin organic film.
II. Description of the Prior Art
Semiconductor light-emitting elements, especially visible light-emitting diodes (LEDs), have been used as functional display elements in various fields Applications of these elements in printers and mini-facsimile systems have also been studied in recent years. Light-emitting diodes are expected to become more and more popular in future, with widespread use in a variety of applications.
III-V Group compound semiconductors such as GaP, GaAs, AlGaAs, and GaAsP have been used as semiconductor substrates for red, yellow, and green LEDs. These LEDs utilize recombination luminessence at an interface of a p-n junction formed in the compound semiconductor substrate by doping an impurity such as zinc, oxygen or nitrogen therein. The LEDs provide a high luminous efficacy of 0.2 to several %.
A compound semiconductor such as SiC, ZnS or ZnSe having a large forbidden band gap is used as a substrate for a blue LED. However, it is difficult to prepare SiC crystals of high quality, and it is difficult to prepare p-n junction in ZnS and ZnSe substrates. For this reason, when such a compound semiconductor is used, attempts have been made to form a metal/insulator/semiconductor (MIS) junction in place of a p-n junction, thereby preparing a light-emitting element. At present, however, MIS light-emitting elements have a lower luminous efficacy than that of p-n junction light-emitting elements. In addition, light-emitting stability of a MIS LED is also low. One of the reasons lies in the fact that it is very difficult to form a good insulating film (I layer), like a silicon oxide film used in a silicon LSI, in the compound semiconductor substrate.
In a MIS LED, the I layer must meet the following requirements. First, the I layer must have a thickness small enough to cause tunneling of electrons or holes. Second, the I layer must have uniform quality free from crystal defects such as pin holes and have a uniform thickness, over the entire surface of the S layer. Third, the I layer must be free from a trapping level that captures electrons or holes at interfaces with the metal layer or the semiconductor layer. Fourth, the I layer must not be substantially degraded by voltage application and heat accompanied by light emission.
In view of the above requirements, utilization of a thin organic film as an I layer formed by the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) method has been proposed in recent years. Since an LB film has the potential to satisfy the above requirements to a considerable degree when organic compounds constituting the film are properly selected, LB films have received a great deal of attention.
An example of a MIS LED using an LB film as the I layer is described in "Thin Solid Films" 99, pp. 283-290, (1984) by J. Batey et al. This light-emitting element has an LB film of cadmium stearate formed on an n-type GaP layer. In general, a fatty acid such as stearic acid has poor mechanical strength and poor thermal stability. In addition, such a material has a low breakdown voltage. Therefore, a fatty acid is not really a satisfactory material for the I layer. However, a fatty acid material can be easily formed as an LB film and the LB film thickness can be controlled on the order of length of molecules (about 2.5 nm in the case of stearic acid). The light-emitting element described in the above literature used such a stearic acid LB film as the I layer. Its luminous efficacy can be increased in accordance with an increase in LB film thickness, and is maximized at a thickness of 20 to 25 nm.
In the light-emitting element having the stearic acid LB film, however, the dynamic characteristics of the element cannot be stabilized (i.e., the light emission state is unstable, and the current-voltage characteristics are unstable) and the luminous efficacy is low. In addition, the light intensity is greatly decreased after only a short period of operation.
In "Electronics Letters", 20, No. 12, pp. 489-491, (1984) by J. Batey et al., a light-emitting element having a phthalocyanine LB film on an n-type GaP layer is described. In this element, when the LB film has a thickness of 5.7 nm, a luminous efficacy reaches a maximum of 8.6.times.10.sup.-3 %. This value can compete with that of a p-n junction LED. More specifically, the luminous efficacy of this element is the same as that of a light-emitting element having a 4-nm thick silicon oxide film on a GaP substrate, and can adequately function as a MIS injection type element. In addition, phthalocyanine has good thermal stability.
Thus, the light-emitting element having the phthalocyanine LB film is better than that having the stearic acid LB film with respect to the change in luminous efficacy with time, the luminous efficacy, and the dynamic characteristics. However, much room is left for improvement of its characteristics and properties, from the practical viewpoint.
As is apparent from the above description, conventional light-emitting elements having a metal/LB film/semiconductor junction structure cannot provide satisfactory luminous efficacy, light emission stability, dynamic characteristic stability, and operation stability over time.